Family Vacation: Rehoboth Beach
Ocean Town in Southern Delaware Attracts Washingtonians, Tourists
Aug 5, 2009
It's a lazy August morning at Rehoboth Beach in southern Delaware. Grey clouds hang low in the sky and large blue umbrellas dot the soft caramel sand far to the south and the north horizon. Beneath them are splayed vacationers from Washington, Pennsylvania, California, and even Pakistan (case in point - Daniyaal and his family).
Daniyaal kicks his foot in the sand and with a spirited whoop runs towards the massive waves of the Atlantic. "I'm gonna surf!" He bolts in and is immediately thrown upside-down by the surf. Moments later the six-year-old boy emerges grinning, his face covered in sand. "Daaaad!," he shouts. "I'll try again with him."
He looks out and sees a dolphin leaping in the distance and runs into the surf again.
Washington Residents Love Rehoboth Beach
Rehoboth Beach is a summer town nicknamed the "nation's summer capital" because of the carloads of Washingtonians who make their way here every summer. Rehoboth reportedly means "broad spaces" in Hebrew. It is family friendly and heterosexual, gay, and lesbian families, and people of various ethnic backgrounds visit here.
Archie's, Kohr's Offer Divine Frozen Treats
Tourists flock to Archie's on Rehoboth Avenue for its heavenly ice-cream. There visitors find chunks of Oreo cookies as big as a pocket book in creamy vanilla. Further down on the boardwalk Kohr's, which has been serving frozen custard since 1919, is also crammed to the gills. A bestseller is the banana/strawberry custard combo in a gigantic cup. A young child squeals, "Yum-oh!". Another favourite haunt for anyone with a sweet tooth is the infamous Candy Kitchen where customers make their own sundaes in between gorging on 20 flavours of salt water taffy and 30 types of fudge.
Outlets Feature Kate Spade, Coach, Banana Republic
A 10-minute-drive from Rehoboth Beach on Coastal Highway 1 are three Tanger Outlets. There's no sales tax in Delaware and with a number of mid-to-high end stores such as Kate Spade, Coach, Cole Haan, and Lacoste, expect crowds. Washingtonians picked through the racks and eyed gorgeous chocolate linen trousers from Banana Republic marked down from $69.99 (USD) to $40 to $24.99 and with a further discount paid only $10.19. Over at Nike running shoes were going for $19. They run $89 in Canada. A luxurious tangerine-coloured pebbled-leather handbag at Cole Haan was marked down from $525 to $325 with further discounts. The final price-tag? Just $160.
Water Parks, Jet-Skiing & Saltwater Taffy
Bird watching and kayaking; clamming and crabbing; mini-golf and water parks; parasailing and jet-skiing. If vacationers plan their trip efficiently it's possible to do all of the above in Rehoboth Beach. It's not a snooty resort town. Locals and visitors lope around in flip-flops and shorts and sport super-bronze tans on the broad boardwalk where the scent of candy, French fries, and taffy wafts through the air.
Free Live Music Nightly
At the bandstand where Rehoboth Avenue meets the ocean, tourists enjoy free, live music nightly. There are sweet shops, jewellery stores, and seafood restaurants of every stripe. Local residents highly recommend fresh fried flounder at Jake's Seafood House at First and Baltimore (right off the main strip); and spicy Thai food at The Cultured Pearl. Of course, describing the restaurant scene warrants a whole other story.
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